The Bigger Picture: Institutional Perspectives on Interim Assessment Technologies

Drawing on a study of new forms of educational privatization, this article examines how ideas from institutional theory can be useful in analyzing the complex dynamics behind interim assessment technologies. The study was based on qualitative research methods and included interviews, a small-scale questionnaire, participant observation, and analysis of public and financial documents. As defined here, interim assessment technology is the software that is sold to schools and districts in order to gauge students’ progress toward high-stakes tests and to comply with the testing and reporting requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The design and implementation of these assessment technologies reflects the complex pressures on schools and districts—to be more efficient, to be more compliant, and to be more equitable. I argue that in understanding the consequences of these technologies, we need to pay close attention to interactions between private firms and public agencies. Examining these interactions is important—for drawing attention not only to what is changing in public education but also to what is not. Private vendors can design sophisticated technologies for generating, storing, and reporting test score data. These technologies can be adopted system-wide. However, from the perspective of school staff, privately designed services and products still can seem very disconnected from the actual challenges of improving instruction.     

The 2014 special educational needs and disability code of practice: old ideology into new policy contexts?

This article reveals the Foucauldian docile body manufactured within the Department for Education’s special educational needs and disability code of practice 2014 through employment of a theoretical lens of embodiment and an analytical focus on only three words. In problematizing the concepts of support, employment and independence, we seek to upend this docile body juxtaposing such against the active ‘non-productive’ disabled body. We conclude that the Code is riven with ideological assumptions which act as a constraint to the location, form and function of the body. Everybody’s body is sorted and graded according to its ability to fulfil a Conservative work ethic and contribute positively to a society in which bodies are not equally valued. The authors suggest that critical discourse analysis, informed by the outlined conceptualisation of embodiment, could be usefully applied in the critiquing of many policy and guidance documents.     

Kissing in the Carnage: An Examination of Framing on Twitter During the Vancouver Riots

This study examines the frames found on Twitter during the Vancouver riots on June 15, 2011. A textual analysis was employed, and resulted in the identification of 5 frames: fandom, riot propagation, global perspectives, shame on Vancouver, and real fans vs. idiots. The identification of these frames illustrated Twitter's role as a source of news and information, and also an outlet for shaping public opinion and cultural perception. Twitter provided the opportunity to counter public perceptions of Canadian hockey fans and the rioters through displays of dissociation, embarrassment, remorse, and comparisons to substantial global events of political unrest.     

Comparing American soccer dialogues: social media commentary Surrounding the 2014 US men’s and 2015 US women’s World Cup teams

Abstract

Mega sporting events such as the World Cup have been found to stimulate categorization of in-groups and out-groups among fans. While self-categorization correlates with gender, the sport of soccer also facilitates nationalistic categorization. The World Cup features nation vs. nation competition while making gender a non-variable as the men and women compete in separate tournaments in separate years. This study examined 33,529 tweets illustrating social media match commentary involving US teams and opponents on Twitter during the 2014 and 2015 World Cups. Results revealed US teams were more likely to be described in regard to attributions of success and failure, while opposition teams were more likely to receive personal and physical attributions. Conversely, no differences were found between US Men’s and Women’s teams in regard to characterizations of success and failure, but revealed the Women’s team was more likely to receive personal and physical characterizations.     

A Meta‐Analysis of the Relationship Between Experiential Learning and Learning Outcomes

Experiential learning activities have been used for over 40 years with the hope that they increase students learning. However, a definitive study that showed their overall effectiveness has not been produced. The purpose of this study is to address this gap in the literature. This meta‐analysis examined a 43‐year span and identified 13,626 journal articles, dissertations, thesis articles, and conference proceedings written about experiential learning and found only 89 of these studies contained empirical data with both a treatment and control group. Meta‐analysis of these studies show that students experienced superior learning outcomes when experiential pedagogies were employed. Further, learning outcomes were almost a half standard deviation higher (d = .43) in classes employing experiential learning pedagogies versus traditional learning environments. This review definitively, and quantitatively, shows the importance of experiential learning activities. We use these results to discuss future research areas that need to be addressed based on our analysis of potential moderators and provide recommendations on how to best employ experiential learning pedagogies.     

Combining Institutional and Distributed Frameworks in Studies of School Leadership

ABSTRACT

The premise of this article is that studies of distributed leadership could benefit from further incorporation of institutional approaches to better understand complex reform demands facing school leaders working for instructional improvement. We begin by articulating the core components of a distributed perspective on leadership and of an institutional perspective on organizational change. We next describe our methods for reviewing a purposeful sample of 28 highly cited empirical articles on distributed school leadership in K-12 settings. We argue that studies that fully integrate institutional and distributed perspectives can contribute important insights on how school leaders manage the pressures of complex policy environments and the role of collective structuration in defining and legitimating distributed leadership practice.     

Reactions to “barriers to the implementation of career education for special education”

Journal of Career Development -